Lil Wayne Files Suit For Uncleared Sample

The Associated Press reports Lil Wayne filed a suit last week against Rebel Rock Productions Inc. for an uncleared sample used on the mixtape song "I Feel Like Dying" [click to listen]. Wayne was sued last year for failing to secure permission to sample the folk song "Once," which was used for the creation of "I Feel Like Dying" [click to read]. In effect, the lawsuit shifts the blame to the song's producer Jim Jonsin for allegedly not obtaining the necessary licensing agreements from the sampled song's creator, Karma-Ann Swanepoel.

Despite the fact that the song was featured on free mixtapes and not an actual retail album, current copyright laws state that uncleared samples can only be used for educational use in a classroom or to comment upon, criticize, or parody the work being sampled.

Rebel Rock hasn't responded to Lil Wayne's claims and doesn't have a lawyer named in court records. Should the suit continue, it would pit Wayne against Jonsin, who collaborated with him on one of his biggest hits, "Lollipop." Last month, a federal magistrate ordered Wayne to turn over financial records for his Grammy Award-winning album, Tha Carter III, to Urband & Lazar Music Publishing [click to read], the original publishers of the song "Once."